Garden Lesson #5: Abundance

It’s like a treasure hunt out in the garden now. You can spend a whole lot of time peeking under leaves, parting the plants to peer in. Just push aside the green growth and you may find a handsome zucchini or an overweight cucumber or the crimson embarrassment of a cherry tomato surprised at being found. You could spend a whole lot of time out in the garden and it would not be wasted time.Nearly every day I go out to see the wealth that is appearing. And nearly every day I have two or three bags to give away to people.

It’s really made me think about abundance and everything we have in life. The garden has been teaching me lessons about that. About all those treasures and the wealth that is out there. The harvest is at hand and there is so much. Spilling over, multiplying in the dark and re-growing in the day. We have so much. So what do we do with all we have been given?

The questions hit us right in the humanity. Right in the spot we keep our worries about having enough. Because when do we really ever have enough? It is a constant concern. One we have been trained to worry about. We need enough to live. We need enough to survive. We must prudently put things away so that can be possible. The world encourages it, counsels it, demands it. We must save up so we will not be without. We slather on the insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, long term care insurance, homeowners insurance. Just in case. Just in case something happens, we want to be prepared and have enough. We invest. We collect. We sock things away. We build bigger garages, bigger barns, bigger storage facilities. We want to have enough. Because we have a sneaking suspicion that there isn’t enough for everyone out there. Just look at all the problems, the social ills, the crimes and misdemeanors. It’s because people don’t have enough. And right or wrong, they want a bigger piece of the pie. Resources are limited, times are tough, and it’s survival of the fittest.

But in God’s Kingdom there is always going to be enough. In God’s Kingdom there is always an abundance. There is enough. To feed sparrows and clothe lilies. There is enough feed thousands with just four loaves and two fish. There is enough for everyone, to heal every broken person and overcome every evil. There is enough and more than enough. Even if we can’t see it how it is possible.

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Perhaps that is what is at the root of so many of our worries.At work, at home, at school, in world. Will there be enough money to make it? Will there be enough time to get everything in? Will there be enough for me to feel secure at my job? Will there be enough love for forgiveness in my relationship? Will there be enough for everyone if we help immigrants and the underemployed? Will there ever be enough?

In God’s Kingdom God is working with abundance as the theme. Just like the garden that keeps producing more and more, more than enough to share, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, more tomatoes. God will provide. And maybe we have to open our eyes to see. Past the things of this world. To the abundant life God longs to give. We can trust the promise that God is always working to provide. Bountifully and joyfully; continually churning out enough love and grace and goodness and all the things for life that we need. That’s something we can bank on.